DECLARE YOURSELF!

Today is an historic day for the State of Utah, and I had the great opportunity of unveiling at the State Capitol rotunda, one of the few remaining original copies of the Declaration of Independence! My pride and love of this country swelled in my heart as I spoke of the experience I had as a teenager to travel across country with my parents to be in Washington D.C. on July 4th, 1976, the Bicentennial of the Declaration of Independence! I still remember the reverence, awe, and patriotism (and the accompanying goosebumps,) I felt the day I gazed on the original Declaration at the National Archives. I felt the same way today.

I spoke of the fact that those brave and inspired founding fathers who signed it pledged in the last sentence "our Lives, our Fortunes and our Sacred Honor." During the subsequent decade of war, many of them gave exactly that. You can read about "The Price They Paid" at www.connecticutsar.org/articles/price_paid.htm.

Everyone knows the inspiring words Thomas Jefferson penned in declaring the self-evident truth "that all men are created equal" and "endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness." But many don't know what follows immediately thereafter: "That to secure these rights, governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just power from the consent of the governed."

This means that elected officials, like me, can only govern by the consent of the people, and that consent is given every four years (or two or six) by voting.

It is my hope that everyone who gazes upon these words of the Declaration of Independence at the Utah State Capitol will also think of all those who have given their all to preserve us a free nation, and immediately register to vote! If you can't make it up here, please watch the above video and then go to http://www.leaveyourprint.com/ and register online, and then get out and vote on November 4th and "Declare Yourself" and give your consent to whomever you choose to make or enforce the laws of this great state and our dear Nation.